How to Define the Ideal Profile for Your Next Chief Financial Officer?
Advice from Fauve, Expert Leadership Search Firm
At Fauve, we specialize in executive search for leadership and key management positions across all functions. We have a deep understanding of each profession thanks to our cross-functional vision of the market, allowing us to present highly qualified candidates on a technical and interpersonal level. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is crucial to your company’s performance, and finding the right person can be a big challenge. Fortunately, our team of strategists knows the ins and outs of the profession and the market’s expectations, and we’ve gathered their advice to help you define the ideal profile for your next financial leader.
3 Essential Qualities for a Chief Financial Officer
The role of a financial leader goes far beyond mastering numbers. Our experience in recruiting profiles for this position has allowed us to identify three essential qualities to look for in your next financial director:
- Having a strategic vision: You want the CFO to understand the sector beyond finance. They must be a true strategic partner, helping you make long-term business decisions. A thorough understanding of your market and its specificities is essential.
- Being a good communicator: Their communication and internal collaboration skills will be decisive. They must know how to navigate easily within teams, the board of directors, and external partners. Their role within the company is central, and knowing how to influence stakeholders is essential.
- Mastering technologies: In a constantly business world, the candidate must have an appetite for new technologies. They must stay up-to-date with the tools coming to market and know how to use them.
A Chief Financial Director is first and foremost a visionary strategist at the heart of organizational transformation.
Lorenzo De Angelis, Partner at Fauve Canada
Essential Skills to Look for in Your Future Chief Financial Officer in 2025
A high-performing Chief Financial Officer is the company’s strategic pillar, and they must display a unique blend of technical and behavioral skills.
Essential technical skills for a Chief Financial Officer
They must first and foremost master modern financial and technological tools, coupled with a capacity for anticipation. Often the first to detect a problem, the finance leader must analyze data to identify potential financial issues and ensure that business objectives remain aligned with reality.
Behavioral skills to look for in a Chief Financial Officer
As mentioned earlier in the article, a CFO has an influential role to play, and they must be able to demonstrate leadership. Their ability to vulgarize complex information and unite stakeholders around common objectives is essential. They are the source of many critical decisions for the company, which requires the ability to inspire confidence while displaying pragmatism and finesse.
Skills according to the size of the company
The role of the financial director in SMEs and large companies is similar in essence: managing finance, defining strategy, and supporting management. The real difference lies in scale and complexity. In an SME, the financial leader is often very close to operations, with a versatile role covering a more agile organization and a narrower scope. In large companies, complexity increases with the management of multiple business units, sites, regulations, and rigorous reporting to meet the expectations of stakeholders (investors, board of directors, etc.).
The role remains fundamentally the same, but the magnitude of the challenges evolves with the size of the organization.
A high-performing CFO is not just a guardian of finances, but an architect for the company’s vision.”
Lorenzo De Angelis, Partner at Fauve Canada
Validating the candidate's strategic vision for the position of Chief Financial Officer
The role of the CFO is central to the company and it is important to assess whether their vision is sufficiently strategic to meet the company’s business challenges. Here are 3 elements to consider:
1. Validate their sectorial mastery
The candidate must master the key challenges, opportunities, and trends in the sector. You shouldn’t only meet candidates with experience in the same sector, however, they must have a keen interest in the key drivers behind your organisations / sector’s challenges.
2. Validate their ability to adapt to the reality of the company
A strategic vision is only valuable if it is anchored in the reality of the organization. The candidate must be able to contrast the dynamics of the market with the realities, strengths, and limitations of the company.
3. Validate their communication skills
Communicating their vision clearly and concisely is essential, as a strategic vision must be understandable and mobilizing for all stakeholders. An excellent CFO is above all a great vulgarizer.
Two mistakes to avoid to successfully integrate your new Chief Financial Director
1. Not giving them the chance to act as a strategic partner
If they are too focused on tidying up operations, the Chief Financial Officer will not have the space to fully play their role as a strategic partner. This often happens when a financially savvy president has difficulty delegating their former responsibilities.
2. Underestimating administrative challenges
On the other hand, some companies minimize administrative challenges, leaving the CFO drowning in inefficient processes and administrative glut, unable to focus on growth and strategy.
Conclusion
In short, the CFO and the President must strike a balance where each plays their role to guide the company to success. By entrusting Fauve with the mandate to recruit your next financial leader, you will meet candidates who not only have the necessary technical skills and a strategic vision to drive your business objectives, but understand the importance of sustainable growth through careful planning, crossfunctional collaboration and an emphasis on the human touch.